1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic material, particularly, to a magnetic material useful as a raw material of a permanent magnet.
2. Description of the Related Art
As high performance rare earth permanent magnets, hitherto, a Sm--Co system magnet and a Nd--Fe--B system magnet are known and their mass production is currently on a sharp increase. These magnets contain Fe and Co at high concentrations and they contribute to the promotion in the level of the saturation magnetic flux density (Bs). These magnets also contain rare earth elements such as Nd and Sm, and the rare earth elements bring about a very large magnetic anisotropy derived from the behavior of 4f electrons in the crystal field. As a result, the coercive force (iH.sub.c) is increased, and a magnet of high performance is realized. Such high performance magnets are mainly used in electric appliances such as loudspeakers, motors and instruments.
On the other hand, a great demand has arisen recently for down-sized electronic appliances and efforts have been required to provide permanent magnets of even higher performance that can be realized by improving the maximum energy product [(BH).sub.max ] of a permanent magnet.